Tobias
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: Tobias is a seventh grade boy troubled by bullies. He seeks escape from the school goons, and friendship from anyone. He finds both with Astro's help. This is a 'virtual' Astro Boy story in the manor of Tezuka's Atom Cat. It's an experimental short on my part.
1. Chapter 1

**Tobias**

* * *

_This is a virtual Astro Boy story, in the manor of Tezuka's Atom Cat. It's an experiment of mine, and I am not going to guarantee a complete story so much as a train of thoughts based on a fantasy._

_The idea for this short was inspired by a young man who is so infatuated with the Astro Boy character that he has made the cosplay of Astro part of his daily routine. A bit of the memory from my youth might sneak in as well.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Tobias Levine looked behind him as he exited school. The seventh grader didn't see the usual bunch of bullies following him and he hoped he was in the clear. As soon as he turned the corner he heard the voices of the crowd that always tormented him at school.

"Hey girly hair! Four eyes! Jew Boy!" The older black kids had found him.

"Run away, freak!" they yelled.

Tobias ducked between two parked cars and quickly J-walked across the street barely avoiding the on coming traffic. They were right about him though. His hair was dirty blond, actually a mix of both dark and blond hair, probably due to a strange mix of genes. Both of Tobias's grandmothers had been blond before they had turned gray. His mother and father were both dark haired.

His eyes were of a blue-green mixture, again probably due to the witch's brew of a gene pool that he had inherited. He was also short. While most of his class was nearing five feet or more in height, Tobias Levine was inches above four feet tall. And he wore glasses. Ugly plastic framed with thick lenses. He made a good target. Being a minority only added to his torment. Besides having to make it home in one piece, he had his Bar Mitzvah studies to worry about. While that was still a ways off, not till the fall anyway, he had just started studying with the Rabbi to learn his Torah portion. He wasn't enjoying that either.

The only thing that he did find pleasant in middle school was the pretty little Asian girl that he met in his homeroom class. At first he thought she was Chinese or Korean. He was uneducated about that part of the world. When he had finally found the courage to ask the girl her name and to introduce himself he stupidly asked if she was Korean.

Sakiko Yamasaki wasn't offended. She found Tobias somewhat quite cute actually.

"My parents are from Japan," she told him. "I was born in America after they arrived here."

"Oh," he said. "I guess I can't tell the difference between people from that part of the world."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "You didn't mean any insult."

"What is your name?" Sakiko asked.

"It's Tobias, but you can call me Toby," he smiled.

When it was time to sign up for the open class choices, Tobias was dismayed at the fact that he'd have to take a foreign language. He'd wanted to keep out of classes that he knew the bullies would be in, that way he might avoid their torment. Most of them would take Spanish or French. It seemed that if he wanted to avoid the goon squad, he'd need to do something out of the ordinary. There was a class being offered in Japanese, but only if enough students signed up. When Tobias entered his name on the sign up sheet he found Sakiko Yamasaki had already put hers on it a few lines up. He confronted her about it at lunch time.

"Hey Sakiko, why did you sign up for the Japanese class, don't you already speak it?"

She laughed. "Hardly. My parents rarely spoke Japanese in front of me, they didn't give me much chance to learn their native tongue. I guess they figured that way they could keep secrets from me or something."

Tobias found that funny. "So now you'll get even with them I suppose?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I wonder what our teacher will think of me taking a class in my native language?"

Once again on his way home Tobias had to evade the bullies. He was getting tired of the 'girl hair' and 'four eyes' insults and it occurred t him what he needed to do.

That night at the dinner table he brought the subject up to his parents.

"I think I'd like to get contact lenses, I'm tired of my glasses."

His mother looked up at him.

"I guess you're old enough for them. We can make you an appointment with the eye doctor and get you fitted for them".

His father nodded with approval.

"Actually, you'll see a lot better with contact lenses than with your glasses, and it will take a weight off your nose."

Well that part went well. He might as well go for broke.

"Mom, can I color my hair black?"

"What?", his mother asked. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Well, why do you color your's blond?" he shot back at her.

"That's different, I'm a woman. Men don't color their hair."

"Dad does!", he said.

It was true. His father had started touching up some of his gray hair back to his 'normal' dark color.

"I'm halfway blond and halfway black. The kid's tease me, calling me 'girl hair'. I want to have dark hair like dad!"

"Let the kid do it," his father answered.

"OK, I'm going to the hairdresser tomorrow. Meet me there after school and I'll have them do you," his mother said.

Tobias felt better. Maybe if he made himself over with a new hair color and got rid of his glasses they'd stop teasing him.

The next day Tobias couldn't wait for the end of school. He ran home faster than he ever had, barely keeping away from the usual bullies. His mother used a hairdresser not far from their home, just a block and a half away, right next door to the supermarket. He ran into the shop and saw his mother already sitting on one of the chairs, getting her hair styled.

"Mary, this is my son Toby. I told him you'd dye his hair black for him. He'll probably need it shampooed first, the kid never washes his head and it probably reeks."

"MOM!" Tobias cried.

When Mary was finished with Mrs. Levine, she took Tobias over to the sink. She asked him to remove his shirt so it wouldn't get wet, and then put a plastic smock on over his head for some water protection.

Mary had him lean over the sink, and she wet his hair with the shower spray, and rubbed a good amount of shampoo in. It lathered up quickly and some of the soap got into his eyes.

"AHHH that burns!" he yelled.

"Keep your eyes closed!" she laughed. "I guess your mom's right, you don't wash your hair very often, do you?"

Mary rinsed out the soap and towel dried his hair and then combed it straight.

"You have nice hair, young man. I could style it anyway you'd like, and it would be very easy to do. I wish my hair would behave as well as your's does."

Mary then rubbed in the hair dye with her gloved hands.

"Now we need to let that set for a while, and then rinse out the excess. I can style it for you later, If you know what you'd want."

"Not now." Tobias said. "Just leave it as it is for now. I'll get it cut later."

"Suit yourself, Toby. But if you'd like me to give you any special look, let me know. I've done lots of party hair, some of it was rather weird too."


	2. Chapter 2

**Tobias**

**Chapter 2**

On the actual first day of the semester the assigned open classes were posted, hopefully reflecting each students choices. Tobias couldn't believe his luck, exactly ten students had signed up for the Japanese language class, so his choice had been granted. He made a point to be early for class so he could get a good seat, preferably one next to Sakiko.

Tobias saw Sakiko and sat next to her. "You dyed your hair?" Sakiko asked.

"Yes, do you like it?" Tobias asked.

"Very much!" she said running her fingers though it.

Their teacher's name was Linda Kimura, a second generation Japanese American. She introduced herself and then began to describe the class to her students.

"I'm so glad we were able to make the minimum number of students so I could teach this class", she said. "Though I'm a little surprised that we didn't have more students sign up due to the current popularity of Manga and Anime among young people these days."

Some chatter started from the back of the room following that remark. Linda waited for the students to quiet down and then started again.

"What makes learning Japanese a little different from the European languages is that it is written in its own character set, and in fact uses several different character sets. There are some textbooks for learning how to read Japanese, but most of them are not very much fun. So I decided we would also use Anime videos and Manga books in addition to our audio visual aids and textbooks. We will be starting out with some older classic material created by the artist who may very well be responsible for the modern manga and anime movement in post war Japan, Tezuka Osmau. We'll start with the series that became his trademark in the same way that Micky Mouse became Disney's. In Japan, it's known as Tetsuwan Atomu, or 'mighty Atom', but it's become known in America and the rest of the world as Astro Boy."

"Astro Boy had been very popular here in the early 1960's when the first anime was imported and translated into English, but the more recent 1980 and 2003 series were not well received in this country, and today Astro Boy isn't well known except by the baby boom generation that first saw him in the 60's. That may change soon, there is a new movie staring him will come out this fall."

She held up a movie poster advertising the upcoming film.

Linda dug into a shopping bag she had brought with her and removed a stack of magazines. She started to hand them out.

"This is a reprint of a collection of the Tetsuwan Atom manga that was recently published in Japan. You'll note that the cover and the first few pages are in color, the rest of the magazine is in black and white, except for some pages of advertising. I also have some Japanese language DVD's for the original 1963 series and we will be using those as well. The best way to learn a language is through total immersion, and if it is via an entertaining medium so much the better. Tezuka wrote this particular manga to be easy for early school kids to read. We'll be using more current manga later in the class."

The rest of the class was spent watching the first episode of the Japanese language anime. Linda played the video over her computer with a program that let her enter English captions over the bottom of the screen. She pointed out and spoke slowly some words for the class to learn. When the end of class bell rang she quickly explained what they'd be doing next.

"The manga books are your's to keep. We'll be going through them next and I will be using the computer on the TV monitor to start you off on basic characters and words. See if you can figure any of the writing out on your own based on the story in the pictures."

Tobias was hooked. He starred at the color front page picture of Atom. He loved the hair style that the robot boy had, those distinctive hair spikes! He didn't understand him wearing almost nothing save tight fitting briefs with a green belt and those tall red boots. In the manga he saw that Atom often did dress in school boy clothes, but the style of those from 1960's Japan were both out of date and never seen in America. Maybe the unclothed version was his 'super hero' mode, and the schoolboy clothed version was his street identity? The manga style of drawing with large eyes only made the characters more appealing.

The next day after school his mother took him to the eye doctor as she had promised. The doctor tested him for glaucoma, night blindness and color blindness (the usual battery of tests the schools asked for), and measured his eyes for the required strength of corrective lenses.

"So you mom tells me you want to get contact lenses instead of continuing to wear your glasses," the doctor said.

"Yeah, I'm tired of being called Four Eyes," Tobias told him.

"Well we can put a stop to that. Your prescription will work out very well in contacts."

Tobias noticed an advertisement that the doctor had posted on the wall showing colored contacts for changing your eye color. That idea suddenly intrigued him. Not only could he get rid of his "four eyes", but his turquoise eye color that he hated. Toby looked back to see if his mother was listening. She was deeply absorbed in a magazine waiting for the doctor to finish up with here son.

"Doc, can I get my contacts in a different eye color?" Tobias spoke in a near whisper.

"Sure, people do it all the time. It works out well with prescription lenses. Why, don't you like your eye color?"

"No, I'm tired of it. It's one of the things I'm being teased about at school, along with my hair. I've had that dyed dark like father's hair, it used to be dirty blond. I think I look less like a girl this way." Tobias explained.

"So what color eyes do you want?" the doctor asked

Tobias thought about that. His father had dark colored eyes, not quit green nor brown. Sakiko had lovely brown eyes, just like Astro in the manga.

"Brown." Tobias told him.

"Well the colored lenses do cost a bit more... Tell you what. I'll have my secretary make up some extra technical charge for that and we'll see if your mom objects to the cost. Maybe we can sneak it by her".

"Thanks doc!", Tobias said.

At the office desk Mrs. Levine looked over the bill and then quickly filled out a check and handed it to the secretary.

"Your son's contacts should be in by the end of the week," she said, "the office will call when you can come by to pick them up."

Tobias was grinning from ear to ear as they left the doctor's office.


	3. Chapter 3

**Tobias**

**Chapter 3**

The Japanese language class quickly become Tobias's favorite. With the small class size, good company (none of the name calling bullies, and mostly girls in this class), plus their friendly and beautiful teacher, he felt like it was a small piece of heaven surrounded by the hell that the rest of the school day usually was for him.

Ms. Kimura started the class with an announcement. She was in a perky mood that day, and full of enthusiasm. Linda held up a stack of leaflets and started to pass them out.

"In a few weeks there is going to be an Anime and Manga convention in the city," She said. "I'm handing out the flyers for the event now. There is a discount coupon for tickets enclosed. I think it would be wonderful if we could all go as a class trip. The convention runs from a Thursday to Sunday, and I was hoping that we could schedule a class trip on the Friday, which will be one of the main event days."

The classroom started buzzing as some of the students had been to one of these events and were expressing their enthusiasm for it.

"One of the events on that Friday will be a Cosplay contest, I'm going to go as Sailor Moon." Linda told the class.

Tobias raised his hand and asked, "What is a Cosplay contest?"

Linda smiled and told him, "Cosplay stands for costume play. Everyone dresses up as their favorite manga or anime character. Both costumes and makeup can be involved, as well as acting. It's a lot of fun, and there are going to be some nice prizes for the winers. The contest has different entry categories to make things fair, you guys will be in the young teen group."

Sakiko was already doodling a sketch. "I know what costume I'm going to do," she said.

"I'll need a pink dress with a yellow blouse, a brown wig, and some pink bows for my hair," she said holding up a drawing of Pinoko. What about you Toby?"

"I'm not sure yet," he started, but his eyes fell upon the cover page of the first manga that they had been handed out. He recalled the hair dresser's comment about being able to style his hair anyway he wanted, even something weird. And he now had the correct hair and eye color too!

"I think I'm going to surprise you!" Tobias told Sakiko.

It was now just a week before the convention. Most of the parents had agreed to signing their kids up for the class trip and to pay for the tickets. Tobias hadn't had any problems getting his father to sign off on the permission slip and to write a check for the cost. Now Tobias had to bug his mom about going shopping for clothes to make up his Cosplay. They went through the mall looking for the essentials. The hardest part was finding him a pair of red boots that would look the part. Moon boots and Uggs were for the most part woman's wear, and Tobias had to settle for some tall water proof rubber boots that looked like they were made for a midget fireman. Luckily, they looked perfect for the part. The black shorts were easier to find, though his mother insisted on something a bit longer in the legs than he wanted. Not being able to find a belt that looked the part, his mother volunteered to sew a green band onto the shorts for him, and they found the correct material at an arts and crafts shop. He didn't want to walk around the convention shirtless, so they found some salmon colored tee shirts that would complete the look.

Tobias had his mother make him an appointment at the hair dresser for the afternoon before the convention. He hadn't had his hair cut for several weeks to make sure it would be long enough to work with. Right after school he came straight home and Mary was waiting for him.

"We'll have to wash and dye you hair again, it's grown and your blond roots are showing!"

This time Tobias kept his eyes closed while Mary shampooed him and applied the dye. While he was waiting for it to dry, before having it cut and styled Mary asked him exactly what he wanted.

"You said you could do crazy party stuff. I need you to do me up in two spikes and some other stuff. I'm going to a manga and amime convention tomorrow and I need to dress up as one of the characters," he said showing her the color front pages of the manga magazine and the flyer for the convention.

"Hey, I've seen the coming attractions for that movie. So you're going to dress up as that Astro Boy kid? Yeah we can do that, it will be easy." Mary smiled at him.

She took the convention flyer and turned it to the page that contained the Astro Boy movie tie-in, as it had a good image of his hair. She also glanced at a few pages of the manga for some ideas and then started cutting hair. Most of the details were in the hair lines, but the spikes required some special attention. Mary gathered some hair into bunches where the spikes would be and applied some gel and hairspray. She then used the electric clippers and hand scissors to shape them into the conical shapes required. This she repeated several times until she had them just right, and then applied more gel and hairspray to harden them down.

"Close your eyes and I'll spray the front down," she said before applying some more hairspray to keep his front bang in place as the nice triangle that she trimmed it to.

"OK kid, you can look at yourself now," Mary told him.

Tobias looked up into the mirror gasped at the perfection that Mary had accomplished. He turned his head to look at the profile, and Mary held up a hand mirror behind him so he could get a better look.

"I'm Astro Boy alright!" Tobias smiled.

"I'll be here early in the morning tomorrow kid. If you need me to fix you up a bit after sleeping on your hair, just pop in before you leave for that convention and I'll repair it for you," Mary promised.

"I think I did a good enough job to win you a prize, so let's give it our best shot!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Tobias**

**Chapter 4**

Tobias woke up early the next day. He had a hard time sleeping because of the excitement of going to the convention. He blindly fumbled into the bathroom to get his contact lenses in, he was almost blind without them or his glasses. It had been three weeks that he had the contacts, but until just a few days ago he hadn't been able to wear them all day. The colored lenses he had insisted on were by nature, a bit larger than the softer and smaller kind which didn't need to cover as much of the eye. He was finally used to them, and to the cleaning and care required to wear them. Best of all, he hadn't heard the chant of "four eyes" for awhile now.

Tobias looked in the mirror to see just how his hair had survived the night. He tried sleeping on his face to keep from crushing the hair spikes, but he rolled around in his sleep as usual. Thanks to the massive amount of gel and spray that Mary had used, the hair style had mostly survived the night, but he decided he'd stop by the hair dresser's shop on the way to school. He showered with one of his mother's over sized shower caps to keep his hairdo from getting wet, and then quickly dressed into his Astro Boy outfit.

He stood in front of the full length mirror to admire the look, and he let his imagination run a bit. As he stood there, the figure in the mirror morphed in appearance as if the guys at industrial light and magic had started processing the image. Instead of Tobias Levine in the mirror, he saw Tetsuwan Atomu smiling back at him.

"We'll win that Cosplay contest Tobio-chan, You and me together." Astro told him.

Tobias snapped out of the trance that he had momentary fallen into and again saw himself in the mirror. Astro was gone. What had just happened? He must have been day dreaming.

Tobias gobbled down his breakfast and ran out of the house. When he got to the hairdresser, Mary was already working on someone.

"Be with you in a minute, I have another client needing a last minute touch up."

Sitting in the chair was Sakkio. She was wearing a pink dress and was having her hair touched up. Two large bangs had been geled up and were being spayed into place. She smiled at Tobias.

"I changed my mind last night about my Cosplay," she smiled. "Mary told my mom about a special job she had done for another boy and I figured out it was you. So I had a last minute change of plans. Now we can go as brother and sister!"

Sakiko got out of the chair and Tobias sat down. Mary didn't need to do much touch up just some combing and a little gel and spray. Tobias couldn't take his eyes of Sakiko, who was now the spitting image of Uran, aka Astro Girl!

The two cosplayers walked to school together. Ms. Kimura's class meet in the school yard to board the bus that would take them to the convention. Not all of the students had decided to dress in cosplay, but among those that did, each one was unique. One of the boys was Ash from Pokemon, and strangely enough, one girl had done a cross gender cosplay as villain Skunk Kusai. There was also a Princess Knight among the mix.

"Oh my!" Linda Kimura cried as Tobias and Sakiko showed up. "Just look at you two!"

The rest of the class turned to see the approaching Tetsuwan siblings, and they started to applaud.

"I think we may have found our class cosplay winners here." Linda said.

The bus took them to midtown, where the convention Hotel was located. Tobais and Sakiko kept together, often holding hands to keep from getting separated in the crowd. Tobias wasn't the only Astro Boy cosplay walking around the convention, but he was the only one dressed in the 1963 Anime look, the others had taken their clues on the upcoming movie. The class had a lot of fun interacting with other cosplayers. Anyone who had done a cosplay from the Astro Boy manga was entered into a drawing to win tickets to see the movie, which was now set to release in a few days. There were drawings through out the day for this, and both Sakiko and Tobias had won a ticket each.

The cosplay judging for the day took place in the early afternoon. Sakiko grabbed Tobias by the hand and dragged him in front of a full length mirror set up in the hallway. They both stood admiring each other and themselves. Once again, Tobias felt himself drift away as their mirror images were replaced by Astro and Uran.

"Hello Tobio-chan," Uran spoke. "You're cute!"

Astro pulled his sister away from the mirror and they flew off. Tobias blinked and there was just he and Sakiko in the mirror.

"Did you see that?" he asked Sakiko.

"Uran is so much the tom-girl. … Did I see what?" Sakiko replied.

"Huh?"

"Oh nothing, I think I was day dreaming." Sakiko answered.

The cosplay contestants lined up before the staging area and walked across before the judges. Photos were taken of each entrant as they paraded by. It didn't take more than a minute for each entrant to be judged. It went so fast that Tobais wasn't even sure what happened.

The class passed though the vendors area. There were lots of manga and amime related items for sale, most imported from Japan and Hong Kong. Tobias bought a set of matching figures of Astro and Uran, each one about ten inches tall. He figured he'd give Sakiko the Uran figure as a present and sit Astro on his desk at home.

By four o'clock, they were announcing the winners in the cosplay contest. The students in Tobias's group were in the 11 to 13 year old group. He and Sakiko won second place prices, gift certificates at a major book store chain. The first prize winner did an elaborate Yu-Gi-Oh costume with a custom dyed wig, makeup, and a very expensively done costume.

During the bus ride home, Tobias broke open the packaging on his figure set, and presented Sakiko with the Uran figure. She thanked him and kissed him on the cheek. The got off the bus in the school yard, and found their parents were waiting for them.

"Good night, Astro-chan," Sakiko told Tobias, a little bit giddy.

"Good night, Uran-chan," Tobias laughed back at her.

Tobias walked home with his parents. It had been a fun day.


	5. Chapter 5

**Tobias**

**Chapter 5**

The weekend was being a bit dull. As usual Tobias was not looking forward to class on Monday, except for the one period of the day where he could escape into another world. He had gone into Wal*Mart looking for the same hairspray and gel that Mary had used on him. While the convention was now over, his transformation from meek little Tobias into Mighty Atom had somehow energized him. Every time he had looked into a mirror, Astro had winked back at him and gave him encouragement. He couldn't give that up.

He passed by the hairdresser's shop on the way back from Wal*Mart and saw Mary getting ready to leave. Tobias ran in and said hello. Then he asked what was really on his mind.

"Mary, can you show me how to comb those spikes up?"

"Sure, but I thought the convention was over?"

"Yeah, I know. I just like it that way."

"Sure, why not. Looks better on you than a Mndingo on some of the punk kids that come in here."

Mary set Tobias up between two mirrors so he could see what she was doing. She showed him how to comb the hair spikes back after they had been crushed during the night, and how to apply the gel and hair spray. She handed him a comb and he tried it. He was able to get the hang of it and smiled.

"You'll need to have your hair dyed and trimmed again in about a week or two, but I think you can handle the maintenance in-between with the comb just like that," she said.

Come Monday, Tobias got ready for school with his hair still in the Astro mode. He wore the red fireman's boots as well, the legs of his school trousers over the tops of the boots. His mother gave him a queer eye and sighed as he walked out the door.

He meet Sakiko in the school yard, and they chatted awhile before the bell rang. Sakiko still had her hair up as Uran, but it wasn't quite as well kept and showed the signs of being slept on.

She smiled at Tobias. "You like your hair up like that?"

"Yes, I guess so. I feel so much better now without the glasses and a more normal hair and eye color."

"Yes, you do look more handsome Tobio-chan," she said.

"Why did you call me that?" He asked.

"I don't know. It just sorta came out that way," Sakiko said.

They were so absorbed in each other that they didn't notice that the bell had rang and the other students had started to enter the building. Also three members of the "goon squad", the older bullies that got their jollies picking on the smaller students had noticed them, and had moved in for the kill.

One of the delinquents grabbed Sakiko by the arm, and pulled her away from Tobias. The other two just stood in front of him and blocked his path.

"Run and get help!" Sakiko yelled to Tobias.

For the past year that was all Tobias had ever done, just ran away from the bullies. In actual fact, the goons had never actually landed a punch on any of the smaller students, they just invoked fear and terror. For the first time ever Tobias held his ground. That was enough to divert the attention of the goon holding Sakiko's arm. She took advantage of the instant by pulling away from him and landing a hard kick right in his balls! The larger boy went down in pain with his hands holding onto the damaged area.

Meanwhile Tobias had been looking down. He was standing in a low spot of the schoolyard which had filled with water from an overnight rain. He saw his face reflected in the water, and it morphed again into Astro's face. Only this time it wasn't Astro's happy smiling face, but his mad, kick butt face.

The two boy's who had been staring down Tobias glanced away at their injured companion. That was a mistake.

What happened next could be explained in several ways. The obvious scientific and medical explanation, would be the adrenaline pouring into Tobias's veins. But I have another theory. For the past year Tobias had only experienced fear when he had been confronted by the goons. This time was different, he had actually gotten mad. They say if you believe in yourself, you can do anything. Tobias no longer believed himself to be a 67 lb weakling wearing glasses, that looked like a girl with blond hair and blueish eyes. He was convinced that he was now a 100,000 HP guided missile!

While the two goons that were blocking his path diverted their attention toward the third, Tobias broke into a run with fists balled. He landed a punch onto the jaw of one of the attackers with such force that it knocked him down and dislocated his mandible. The other punk took one look at Tobias, who had a look on his face like a rabid pit bull about to attack, and he turned and ran. As soon as the other two attackers were able to get to their feet, they also turned chicken and took off.

Tobias looked down into the puddle at his reflection, and saw Astro's smiling face wink at him with the look he always had after saving the day. Slowly the image dissolved and there was just the face of Tobias Levine.

Sakiko had watched as Tobias had taken up the offensive position. She blinked her eyes in disbelief, for she didn't see her schoolmate coming to her aid. What she saw with her own eyes was Astro himself, almost exactly like in the Anime! Only after the three hoodlums had ran for their lives did she perceive Tobias as himself again. It didn't make sense, she must have fainted from the excitement and imagined it!

Tobias took Sakiko by the hand and they walked to class. It would be the last time either of them would ever again be troubled by the bullies.


	6. Chapter 6

**Tobias**

**Chapter 6**

November was coming to an end and Tobias's Bar Mitzvah had come at last. He had studied hard with the Rabbi, but was still nervous. He actually looked forward to the occasion, and dreaded it at the same time.

His parents had dragged him to the mall to shop for a new suit to wear. His mother kept showing him different items from off the racks, but they were all the same grays and blacks. Yuck, he thought. Tobias wanted something that would stand out. He finally noticed a suit with dark blue pants and a lighter blue jacket. He also found a red bow tie that he could just die for. His mother was aghast at the sight of it, but his father didn't think it was so bad.

"It's HIS Bar Mitzvah, let him pick out his own suit!" his father said. "There's nothing wrong with a little color, it's not like it's purple with polka dots!"

Tobias didn't want to tell his parents why he liked what he picked out. In fact, Astro had worn a suit with exactly that color combination in one of the stories he'd read.

Then they went to look for shoes. Once again, his parents looked at everything in black or browns. But Tobias found a pair of red Florsheims in his size. He insisted on them, and picked out a pair of red stockings to go along with them. The look on his mom's face was priceless. But his dad gave in.

"They go fine with the pants! Let him have them!"

Finally the big day had arrived. Tobias sat on a chair up on the Bema, in the synagogue sanctuary. He wore the new Tallit that his father had bought him for the occasion. On his head he had the embroidered felt yamaka his grandmother had bought him, held in place between the two spikes of hair by bobby pins. He also had to wear the dreaded tefillin, with the leather strap wrapped around his bare arm and hand. The morning prayer service was under way, and his big moment would start when the Ark was opened to read the Torah. He looked down and saw that Sakiko had accepted his invitation, she sat with her mother in the row behind his mom. The men sat on the opposite site of the sanctuary from the women, as this was an Orthodox temple.

The Rabbi called for the congregation to rise for the opening of the Ark. He motioned for Tobias to approach the Ark with his father. After the prayer for removing the Torah from the Ark had been read, Tobias opened the Ark and reached in to remove one of the holy scrolls. The back of the Ark was a mirror that allowed the congregation to see both sides of the four Torahs that it contained. Tobias removed the designated scroll, and handed it to his father, who carried off of the Bema. Mr. Levine then marched slowly up and down the isles of the sanctuary carrying the sacred text so that the worshipers in the isle could show their respect for the Torah by touching it with the corners of their Tallit, or a prayer book; and then bringing the Tallit or prayer book to their lips to kiss it. Finally, his father carried the Torah back to the Bema. He held it upright so the Rabbi could remove the cloth covering from it, and then after the covering was put aside, the Rabbi took the scroll from him and placed it on the podium. The Rabbi rolled the Torah open to the correct location, and then nodded to Tobias at the Ark to close it. As he stood in front of the Ark with his hands reached up to grab hold of the doors to close them, he saw his reflection in the mirror at the Ark's back. His image morphed into that of Astro, who was also wearing a suit, yamaka, and Tallit. Astro winked at Tobias and gave him a thumbs up encouragement. The reflection in the mirror faded back to that of Tobias, and the boy slid the doors of the Ark closed.

Tobias joined his father and the Rabbi at the podium and his father handed him a small box. Tobias opened the box, and saw that it contained a Yad. The Yad is an ornamental pointer used to hold one's place while reading the Torah. It is prohibited to use one's finger to touch the Torah for this purpose, by reason of respect, and to prevent the oils of the hand from causing damage to the ink and leather of the holy document itself. Yads are usually made of silver or silver plate, and are a wand ending with a pointer in the shape of a hand with on outstretched finger. Tobias nervously opened the box and removed the Yad from it. He blinked as he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. On the end of the wand was a little sculpture of Astro in a flying pose with his left arm extended. The index finger on his left hand was the Yad's pointer. Where did his parents get this? It was perfect! The other end of the Yad had a long silver chain attached to it, which Tobias put over his head. If the Yad was dropped, it would not fall to the floor.

The Rabbi guided Tobias's hand holding the Yad, to point at the portion of the Torah text that he was to read. Tobias, had been practicing for several months now, so he actually knew the entire portion by heart, and only needed to pace himself with the written text. With Astro's hand guiding the way, he sung the Torah portion perfectly, in a loud clear voice. His father was beaming with pride. Tobias finished his reading and stepped aside. The Rabbi rolled the scroll shut and held it aloft so Tobias could replace the cloth cover over it. Once again, his father took the Torah and walked it around the sanctuary before going up to the Ark and placing the holy scroll back into its place. Tobias walked up to the Ark and prepared to close the doors at the Rabbi's command. He again saw Astro in the mirror. Astro spoke to him in a voice that only Tobias heard. "Good luck Tobio-san. Now you are a man. You won't be needing me anymore. Good luck!" Astro flew off and Tobias saw only his own reflection in the mirror. After closing the Ark, he removed the box that the Yad had come in from his pocket and after lifting the chain from around his neck he started to put the pointer back into the box. He noticed then that the pointer end of the Yad had only the image of a hand, the small sculpture of Astro was gone! Maybe it had never actually been there, and it was all in his imagination? With some disappointment, he put the Yad back into the box and pocketed it.

A few weeks later Tobias returned to the hairdresser. Mary called him over to her station.

"The usual wash, dye and style?"

"No, not this time. Can you bleach the remaining color from my hair? I'd like to go back to my natural color. And then just a normal hair cut. I'm tired of the spikes," Tobias told her.

"Sure, no problem. Guess it was getting old hat eh? Well change is good."

The next month he saw the eye doctor again.

"So how are the contacts doing, son?" the doctor asked him.

"Oh, I can see very well with them. But I'd like some plain ones. I'd like to go back to my normal eye color."

"Sure, I'll order you new ones. They'll be a bit easier to wear since we can order them in the soft lens variety."

* * *

Years later, Tobias was helping his mother clean out the house. His parents were moving to Florida to retire. He had moved on a few years ago, having graduated from college and was now engaged to marry. He and his bride to be would be moving to an apartment on the other side of town. He came across a box of old photographs. In one of the photos, he was getting off the bus from that school trip to the Anime and Manga convention back in middle school. He smiled at seeing himself again, dressed up in that Astro Boy cosplay that he had worn for several months. Silently, to himself, he thanked Astro for his help. He hoped that the Mighty Atom would continue to render assistance to other kids like himself, where ever they were.


End file.
